It's a cold dark evening, November 1989. Some twenty or so competitors arrive at the Iffley Road Sports Centre in Oxford, about to make British Indoor Rowing history. They milled together, and every now and then one would glance nervously at a solitary line of Concept2 model Bs with PM1 monitors in the middle of the hall. They knew there was no going back now, and only minutes remained before their turn would come, 2,500m head to head, for the title of British Indoor Rowing Champion. No cables, no race software, no screen, no computers, and definitely no internet (how some things have changed!).

And now, 22 years on, another unique British Indoor Rowing milestone has been achieved with the completion of the very first British Online Rowing Champs. You could not see the sweat on the brow, hear the nervous cough, hear the swish of the seat rollers as competitors come forward to pick up the handle, but you knew that their hearts were pounding, and you could imagine that focused stare as they all prepared for the first stroke......only this time their adversary wasn't at arms length, but hundreds, even thousands of miles away. It truly is a great way to bring indoor rowers together not only from the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland but from around the world as well.

Many congratulations to all those that took part and made history once more. The technology will never replace the dedication to training and the appetite for competition that you have shown, we hope it should just make it more fun. The BORC was jointly organised by Concept2 and Digital Rowing and we hope you all enjoyed it.

Thank you to all the lightweights for weighing-in on time. Which I dare to say was just slightly ahead of us being fully setup. Our apologies to Roberta for panicking the life out of her with the countdown to racing after she had weighed in.

Apart from the geographical location we didn't get much feedback from anyone as to where they were paddling, at home, the garage, at the gym, but we did hear from Chris Williams who told us he was using his pride and joy, a model C with PM2+. Well Chris we know what your great great grand children will be taking to the Antiques Roadshow! Will it have BORC 2011 etched on the side?

Our sympathies go to those that were struck down without mercy by technical problems. In particular to Paul Buchanan who wasn't able to race in either the Men's open or the Men's 30-34 and to Bill Wright who's boat actually showed on the start line but then dropped out just as everyone else took off, Bill did go on to set a personal best offline.

One of the lighter moments must have been when Bira Nunes from Brazil thought he was joining his normal Saturday group session for a relaxing paddle but found himself by accident on the start line of the Men's Open.

The live race view that enabled you to be a spectator in a race looked fantastic and is something we can see becoming a prominent feature in the next BORC.

Well done once again to all those that raced, especially the winners, and look forward to seeing you all compete again in the BORC 2012.

In total there were 57 competitors from 10 countries. Results are now online.